Ward Rolls to Challenge Series Victory at Casino; Johnson, Hess and Larson Win

Scott Ward won the late models at Casino. Photo by Darin Stein

Casino Speedway in Watertown hosted the Structural Buildings Wissota Late Model Challenge Series on Sunday night.  There were two heats in every support class which to me is fine at a ¼-mile bullring track.

The Wissota LM Challenge Series, as a fan, needs some changes to rebuild its numbers consistently. I'll save that for another blog.

Casino had a lengthy intermission to work the track, and I was curious what it would do for the late models, who ran third on the feature grid. The work paid off with a terrific track for the features with multiple lanes. There was some excellent driving by the whole late model field. In fact, there were no cautions and from what I saw not a lot of contact.  

Veterans Dave Mass of East Bethel and Scott Ward of Watertown – who won Saturday at Madison – led the late models to the green. Ward also won this race last year with a late pass. I am always watching the 1TPO of Tyler Peterson who is extremely tough at the bullring, and he started third next to Kevin Eder of Cameron, Wis.

Ward surged to the lead on the high lane with Mass in second, but Eder soon made the low lane work and moved into second. Mass fell to third with TPO in fourth. 

Eder was really good on the bottom and caught Ward for the top spot as the two veterans put on a great show for the lead. TPO was working on Mass for third, Morgan Ward Grosz of Watertown was running a solid fifth.

TPO got by Mass for third with 30 to go as Ward led by about .4 second up front.  Jeff Provinzino of Hibbing passed Ward Grosz for fifth. Trevor Anderson of Watertown was fighting Ward Grosz for sixth and made the pass.

Ward and Eder caught lapped traffic about 15 laps into the main event, and TPO was closing quickly on Eder. Ward was methodical in the lapped traffic and made the high line work effectively.  TPO cut the gap on Eder in lapped traffic and that allowed Ward to open a 1.5 second lead. Mass was closing on TPO for third as that group was fighting in lapped traffic.

Eder slid high in turn four and that opened the door for TPO to seize second with about 10 to go. Mass would move into third a few laps later.

Ward was turning the race into a rout. It’s not often you see guys like Zach Johnson and Shane Sabraski get lapped, but Ward was blistering the field on the high side with a straightaway lead on TPO by the checkered. It was a dominant, thorough win for the 37 who was in firm control of the 40-lap, caution free main event. It was a good race, my kind of late model racing at least.

Mass finished third with Provinzino, who won at Viking earlier this year, in fourth ahead of Eder. The hard charger I think was Zach Johnson, who went from 17th to 12th.

Ten Wissota Midwest Modifieds were on hand with Onyx Johnson of Lowry and Tommy Nichols of Watertown on the front row.  Johnson would jump out to the early lead with Todd Stark of Watertown pressuring Nichols for second.

Johnson, who picked up his first career win at Fiesta City earlier this season, faced a lot of heat from Nichols up front. The veteran Scott Hansen of Garden City – who will be featured in a RaceChaser blog story this week – was third.

After a caution Stark battled Nichols for second with the long-time veteran Terry Reilly of Watertown in third.   On the restart Nichols took a look underneath Johnson but still had Stark to contend with. The caution waved again for a two-car mishap in one and two.

When the racing resumed, Nichols got into the back of Stark in turn four with 12 to go to bring out the yellow, sending the 28 to the tail. He wouldn’t be there long.

The restart saw Stark and Hansen on Johnson’s rear with Reilly in fourth. Nichols quickly had worked back to fifth. Stark was within a car length of Johnson as Reilly had passed Hansen for third and set his sights on Stark. Nichols was starting to close the gap on Hansen for fourth.

With four to go Stark caught Johnson again running down low and peeked for the lead. Johnson could not afford to flinch as the 33 car was waiting to pounce, and the 73 car didn’t as he picked up the feature win. He is the 15-year-old son of long-time racer Zach Johnson of Lowry, also known by many as the Millennial Farmer. Stark settled for second with Reilly third, Nichols made a nice recovery to get fourth and Hansen in fifth.

Wade Tirrel of White was the early leader in the Wissota Street Stocks with a lot of company behind him including Jayden Bogh of Huron. Trey Hess of Grand Forks emerged from the group to challenge Tirrel. Some contact shuffled the 31 of Jason Marko of Watertown back a few spots.

Tony Miller of Browns Valley had moved into third but was overtaken by Bogh. Hess meanwhile grabbed the lead and pulled away from Bogh. The real battle was for third on back with Miller, Marko, Goth, Andy Rossow of Florence and Tirrel bunched together. The caution waved for Joe Arndt’s spin in turn two.

Hess resumed the lead up front with Bogh in second. Miller had Marko challenging him for third with Rossow moving into fourth. Hess had about a 1-2 car length advantage up front but Bogh stayed within striking distance. Marko got by Miller for third. The caution would fly with four to go for Cory Giessinger’s spin in turn two.

Hess led on the restart with Rossow making a late charge on the outside. He, Bogh and Marko went three-wide for second. Defending Casino champion Maria Broksieck climbed to fifth.

Rossow was charging big-time on the outside and with another lap or two, had a real shot at the win but ran out of time as Hess picked up his sixth win of 2025.  Rossow settled for second after starting eighth with Bogh third. Marko crossed the line fourth but was DQed postrace (according to myracepass results), moving Broksieck to fourth and Miller to fifth.

Curt Kranz of Watertown led early in the Gen X late model feature, but Trevor Walsh of Watertown surged out front on the high side. Parker Gilbertson of Montevideo was third with Tyler MacFarland of Goodwin running fourth.

Kranz was working the low lane and ran side by side with Walsh as the fight for the lead intensified. Hope Swenson’s spin in turn two brought out the caution.

Matthew Larson of Lake Elmo captured third on the restart over Bodie Croninger as Gilbertson fell back to fifth. Walsh had about .8 seconds on Kranz with 12 to go.

With eight to go Kranz got around Walsh as the bottom lane was now the preferred lane.

However, with four to go Walsh got into Kranz in turns one and two and sent the 87 spinning. Walsh was charged with the yellow. On the restart Gilbertson was now up to third next to Larson, who was trying to make the higher lane work. I turned into a nice battle between Larson and Kranz, but Larson would eventually prevail by .404 seconds. Kranz settled for second with Tony Croninger of Watertown in third, Gilbertson fourth and Walsh recovering to finish fifth.

Williamson, Puffe, Carlson and Blevins lead Bemidji Victories

Tanner Williamson of Fort Francis, Ontario won the Wissota Modified feature Sunday night at Bemidji Speedway. Jeff Reed of Bemidji was second and Adam Johnson of Perham was third.

Dustin Puffe of Laporte topped Kade Leeper of Guthrie for the Wissota Pure Stock win. Chris Dudley of Bemidji was third, Alex Berg of Bemidji was fourth and Joshua Bitker of Bemidji was fifth.

Dalton Carlson of Cohasset topped Brandon Bahr of Bemidji for the Wissota Super Stock feature. Nic Lewis of Bemidji was third, Cameronn Labelle of Laporte was fourth and Doug Koski of Chisholm was fifth.

Hibbing driver Mikey Blevins won the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Sam Blevins of Hibbing. Gary James Nelson of Blackduck was third, Landon Gross of Bemidji was fourth and Hunter Weeks of Laporte was fifth.

Brady Fosso of Hibbing topped Chad Reller of Waskish for the Wissota Hornet win. Travis Olafson of Wilton was third, Jada Lore of Embarrass fourth and Logan Delaney of Solway was fifth.

Ashton Schwinn of Little Falls won the Wissota Mod 4 feature over Patrick Specht of Bemidji. Blake Erickson of Bemidji was third, Conrad Schwinn of Little Falls was fourth and Kevin Bahr of Bemidji was fifth.

Conrad Schwinn of Little Falls topped Nick McCann of Brainerd for the Mini Stock win. Jonah Espe of Roseau was third, Cameron Schwinn of Little Falls fourth and Justin Honer of Bemidji was fifth.

Eisenschenk, Johnson, Machart, Pavlicek Lead Buffalo River Winners

Laela Eisenschenk of Fargo won the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint feature from the outside pole over Ty Hanten of West Fargo Sunday night at Buffalo River Speedway. Owen Carlson of Somerset, Wis., was third, Brandon Rekow of Ellendale was fourth and Owen Graf of Glencoe was fifth.

Mitch Johnson of Hickson picked up his second feature win of the season in the Wissota Late Models with Amelia Eisenschenk of Fargo second and Rusty Kollman of Carrington third, Konner Sperle of Aberdeen was fourth and Dan Dowling of Davenport was fifth.

Kody Machart of Moorhead won the INEX Legend feature over Joshua Wiest of Jamestown. Alex Braseth of Ulen was third, Alexander Clark of Moorhead was fifth and Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids was fifth.

Jayden Pavlicek of Casselton is now 3-for-3 in the IMCA Sport Mod feature over Kyle VanMil of Barnesville. James Taves of Glyndon was third, T.J. Wyman of Princeton was fourth and Austin Veralrud of Aubudon was fifth.

Greg Jose of Grand Forks held off Cole Greseth of Harwood for the Wissota Street Stock feature win. Kasey Ussatis of Nome was third.

Bryce Mueller topped Hunter Goulet of Fargo for the Short Tracker win. Dayton Kent of West Fargo was third, Nathan Kelley of West Fargo was fourth and Adrian Kubitz of Fargo was fifth.